Flash Gordon 3 - The Space Circus by Alex Raymond Page B

the trees.
    More of the bats were diving now, humming and squeaking.
    Flash fired again, then again.
    Some of them got by him. A huge fat-winged bat, its rat teeth flashing white, lunged through the air at Flash’s neck.
    “Watch out!” Jape swung his shockstick, swatting the creature across the skull.
    The glowing bat stiffened, wings folding up. It fell at their feet.
    Two more made for Flash.
    Jape swatted again, firing the stungun at the same time.
    He got both of them.
    Flash pivoted, shot again up into the darkness. “Thinning them out,” he said.
    Jape swung at another bat. He missed and the creature whirled and sank his teeth into his shoulder. An instant later, Jape used his stungun on it. The bat let go and fell away from him. But blood was flowing down his arm. He used one of his free hands to press against the wound.
    The remaining bats made louder squeaking noises now, concentrating on trying to get at the bleeding Jape.
    Flash kept on firing.
    Soon the dark night was filled with glistening sparkling dust which had been the bats.
    The last five went flapping up and away finally, leaving Flash and Jape.
    Flash inhaled and exhaled through his mouth. “So much for the bats,” he said. “How are you doing?”
    “It hurts a good deal,” said Jape. He put away his weapons while he got out a cloth handkerchief from a pocket. He pressed it hard against the bite wound. “The bleeding’s almost stopped.”
    “We don’t know much about the local wild life,” said Flash. “I’m wondering if there’s a risk of rabies.”
    “Not much we can do about it if there is,” said Jape.
    Flash shrugged out of his pack. “There was something that looked like a first-aid kit in what we salvaged from the train wreck. Maybe we can at least disinfect the wound.”
    “Yes, that’s a good idea,” said Jape. “Although—”
    He saw them first. Five men came out from behind the nearby trees.
    Flash had set down his rifle to dig in the pack. He looked back over his shoulder now.
    Three of the men were blue; all five held guns.

CHAPTER 25
    H uk’s powerful wings ceased flapping and he drifted down through the dusk. “I can see nothing of them from above,” he announced as he landed on the ground.
    “Don’t worry about that,” said the strongman. “We’re still on their trail, getting closer all the time. If you’d let me forge on ahead, I could catch the whole pack of blue devils and snatch back that worthless Booker.”
    “We stay together,” said Huk.
    Sixy was poking at the ground with his toes. “They’re not all blue men we’re after, by the way.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “The trail they’ve left, faint as it is, tells a different story. This one fellow here, judging by the length of his stride and the depth of his prints, has got to be nearly as big as you are, Mallox.”
    Mallox scowled. “I’ve never seen a blue devil who matched me in size.”
    “Nor have I,” said the hawkman. “That means at least one of our kidnappers is probably from some other planet, like ourselves.”
    “Which fits in with the stories I’ve heard,” said Sixy. “Some of these roving bands have runaways in them.”
    The strongman snorted. “I don’t think much of men who run away from slavers only to become slavers themselves.” He clapped his big hands together. “Well now, let’s move along. I’d like to catch these fellows before nightfall.”
    “I doubt we’ll encounter them that soon,” said Huk.
    The light began to fade slowly, the more distant trees turning gradually dark, then those closer at hand. The ceiling of green leaves and branches gave way to one of thick darkness. Small night birds began to call from the interlaced lower branches. Enormous fireflies, that glowed bright green and scarlet and gold, flittered all around.
    “At least they don’t bite.” Sixy brushed one of the big light-throbbing insects off his elbow.
    The three men continued on through the jungle, slowed now by the